Xbox Live - Final Fantasy secret Achievements and Achievement Guide

Final Fantasy is finally available, and we’ve already provided some beginner tips and resources to help players get started. Even advanced players will need help with the game’s Achievements, though. Why? They’re all secret, meaning players can’t view them in-game or through Xbox Live prior to earning them. This led many to speculate that the Achievements would all be story-related. As it turns out, that did not prove to be the case.

We know this because Achievement hunter-extraordinaire Zebrasqual managed to uncover Final Fantasy’s full Achievement list. Windows Phone Central then broke those Achievements down into categories for your convenience. Not only that, we’ve got tips and resources for the more challenging ones that will set you on the right track. It won't be easy though, so prepare for a lengthy journey!

Progression Achievements (Can't be missed)

Cross That Bridge (5)
Crossed the bridge north of Cornelia.

Strike It Lich
Defeated the Lich.

Marilith Ever After
Defeated Marilith.

Airborne
Acquired the Airship.

Get Kraken
Defeated the Kraken.

Lay Out the Tiamat
Defeated Tiamat.

Chaos in Disarray
Defeated Chaos.

Grinding and Exploration Achievements

Monster Mash (5)
Defeated 100 monsters.

Monster Mayhem
Defeated 1,000 monsters.

Monster Massacre
Defeated 5,000 monsters.

Globetrotter
Set foot in every monster-free town and castle.

10K
Took 10,000 steps.

10% Gillionaire
Acquire 100,000 gil.

Challenging Achievements

Half-minute Hacker
Completed the 15 Puzzle within 30 seconds.

Mech Love, Not War
Defeated Warmech.

Soul of Kos
Completed entire Soul of Chaos.

Out of Time
Defeated Chronodia in all forms.

Fast to the Finish
Completed game within 8 hours.

Mini Achievement Guide

Half Minute Hacker:

The 15 Puzzle is a secret sliding puzzle that can be accessed once you’ve acquired the pirate ship from Bikke and his crew in Pravoka (very early in the game). To start the puzzle, hop in the ship and do the following:

Press and hold the screen with one finger. Using the other finger, tap the screen 23 times. The screen will then turn white and switch to the 15 Puzzle.

Actually completing the puzzle in less than 30 seconds is another matter entirely. I don’t know about you, but I hate sliding puzzles! To come in under par, you can either learn a strategy or use a solver program. I haven’t been able to find a web-based solver that lets users edit the starting number positions, but thankfully Takaken’s 15 Puzzle Optimal Solver for Windows is a small download and easy to use. You'll select Free layout in the Program, click and drag the number positions to match those of the game, and then click Solve. The solution appears at the right.

The first trick is getting the numbers in without allowing the timer to advance. Once you choose to start the puzzle, immediately press Back to pause the game. The lower 8 tiles will be visible; input those. Flipping the phone causes the upper 8 tiles to appear briefly. Just flip the phone, observe as may numbers as you can, input them, and then repeat until you have all of the tile positions entered into Takaten's Solver.

Once the solution has been generated, I find it helpful to copy and paste the solution into Notepad. Then add line breaks after every 5 moves; in other words, break the lines down into 5 moves instead of 10. Memorize the moves 5 steps at a time, unpause, quickly enter the moves, and pause again. Delete the moves you just made from Notepad and repeat the previous steps. With any luck, your last move will come in under 30 seconds. It may take several tries though, as some puzzle configurations require more steps to solve than others. Your reward for coming in first place: one rare item and one semi-rare item.

Mech love, Not War:

The WarMech is a secret enemy found in the Flying Fortress on floor five, just before fighting Tiamat (many people beat Tiamat first, save, then and come back for WarMech though). You only have a 1/64 chance of encountering WarMech instead of common foes, so you’ll need to do lots of fighting before it appears. Warmech is super tough to beat, but you’ll get both an Achievement and 32,000 Gil for doing so (reward unverified at present). For more tips, check out StrategyWiki.

Soul of Kos:

The Soul of Chaos consists of four bonus dungeons introduced in the GameBoy Advance version of Final Fantasy. The new dungeons feature enemies from subsequent Final Fantasy games – a real treat for series fans. Each Chaos dungeon is unlocked by defeating an elemental fiend: Lich, Marilith, Kraken, and Tiamat. To locate the dungeons, check out this overworld map. The Final Fantasy Kingdom website also provides maps and strategies for all four dungeons, so you shouldn’t have much trouble.

Out of Time:

You’ll need to complete the Labyrinth of Time at least 8 times (thus defeating all 8 versions of super-boss Chronodia) in order to get this one. Out of Time will be the hardest Achievement in the game. First read up on it at the Final Fantasy Wikia, and then use this GameFAQs guide for more strategies.

Fast to the Finish:

It's possible to get this on your very first playthrough, but that requires strict adherence to a guide and basically takes all the fun out of the game. I recommend going for this after completing everything else in the game, including Out of Time. Now start a new game and fill your party with either two Fighters and two Red Mages or Two Fighters, a White Mage, and a Black Mage. Unfortunately there are no speed run guides for the PSP/iOS/Windows Phone versions of Final Fantasy, but this page for Final Fantasy Origins (PSOne) might provide some useful tips. Otherwise, just use a good party, follow a general FAQ if you like, and do your best!

Update: You can get "Fast to the Finish" much more easily by beating the game as normal (taking any amount of time) and completely watching the end credits. Start a new game and allow all members of your party to die. The Achievement should then pop.

That’s all for our mini Achievement Guide. Let us know if you find it useful and don't miss our full review!

It's mostly nostalgia I'm guessing. I grew up with the game which is why I think I love it, but regardless of that there's a strangely addictive quality about spending hours laboring to strengthen your characters enough to kill that difficult boss.

Its a remade port of an NES classic, so naturally the graphics are not up to date... But through this comment I can tell that your of the younger generation, and not part of the coveted 8 bit generation and that's just fine. But following your logic, everyone should like battlefield 3 better than any CoD because BF3 has the best graphics, but that's not the case. Many people I talk to who love CoD but don't like BF3, say it's because BF3 is too complicated and has too many things to do, rather than just hide in a corner and spawn kill. So to each his own.

I think the reference is that it's a poorly ported game. Look at Dragon's Blade. It's so much more interesting and follows the same lines and look of FF. I played both last night. DB is so much more fun.

I am a RPG fan and I have tried Dragon's Blade. Several times. I want to like it but I just can't. I just don't think it's much fun. I enjoy this FF game a lot more even though I have no nostalgic feelings about it at all since I did not play this particular game as young.

Maybe I worded it badly, I meant misseble but not like "10k steps", because, while technically it might be, pragmatically it's not, since one can just force it to happen before end game. Did I make any sense?

Half-minute Hacker and Mech Love, Not War might be missable, but I haven't gotten far enough to test it yet. Just try to make a note of those two and seek them out when you reach the appropriate areas.

I actually find it pretty useful to have the clock/battery/etc available on the left side. At least in a game like this where you can get lost for hours. If I could chose though I would stretch it out probably.

does anyone know how the time is counted? or more specifically: how you can stop time while playing?
i used a guide to quickly move through the game. but after the first crystal i'm already up to 7h.
so i guess i didn't stop the clock the right way while reading the guides...

Some savvy achievement hunters found an easy way to get the Fast to the Finish achievement. Just play the game as normal--take as long as you want. Once you beat the game, let the credits completely roll, then start a new game and have all your characters die right away and then the achievement will pop, apparently. Apparently the game will see that your game is over in less than 8 hours and that you've beaten the game and doesn't piece together that those were two different game saves.

I don't know how the time is counted but I'm assuming it runs constantly with the time clock in game. I beat the game in a little over 7 hours and it was pretty fun and challenging. Do be aware that you don't get the achievement until you see the title screen so the clock might run trough the credits until "the end" appears on the screen.